mickey-17
Mickey 17
Mickey 17

Best Movies to Watch: Your Ultimate Guide to New Releases & Streaming

Don’t know what to watch? We’ve got your back with the must-see new releases and streaming picks

Matthew Singer
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Streaming is hard. That seems like a misnomer, given that practically every movie you could ever want to watch is now a few clicks away. But that’s the issue: knowing precisely what’s out there, and where to find it, can become overwhelming. Here, we’re doing the hard work for you, by cutting through the clutter and getting straight to the best movies available to watch right now – not just at home, but in theaters as well. We will update this guide regularly, so you can always find something to watch. Here’s the latest and greatest available right now.

What to Watch Now: New Movie Releases

In Cinemas and Theaters This Month

Mickey 17

Robert Pattinson is a human canary in a coal mine in Bong Joon Ho’s long-awaited followup to Parasite. #TeamJacob, want to see Edward Cullen die (and regenerate) over and over and over again? Here’s the flick for you!

In theaters now

Disney’s Snow White

Yet another live-action remake from the House of Mouse, this time for the most foundational movie in the company’s history. Seems like the height of blasphemy, but there’s nothing wrong with giving today’s kids a fresh heroine to look up to, especially if it’s West Side Story’s talented Rachel Zegler. On the other hand: CGI dwarves? Really?

In theaters now

The Alto Knights
Barry LevinsonThe Alto Knights

The Alto Knights

Barry Levinson does Scorsese cosplay, with the odd gimmick of Robert De Niro playing both the notorious mob boss Frank Costello and his rival, Vito Genovese. (Yes, he’s literally talkin’ to himself.) Is there suddenly a shortage of ageing Italian-American men in Hollywood or something? 

In theaters now

Black Bag

After years of formal experiments and small-scale streaming movies, Steven Soderbergh is back in his, um, bag with a sleek, snappy spy thriller, starring Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett as married intelligence agents who find their blessed union challenged by geopolitical shenanigans. 

In theaters now

Opus
Photograph: A24Ayo Edebiri in ‘Opus’

Opus

A24’s latest horror-comedy stars the ascendant Ayo Edebiri (The Bear) as a struggling young journalist sucked into the cult of personality – which may just be a straight-up cult – surrounding a highly reclusive pop star, played by John Malkovich. Reviews have skewed negative, but most agree Edebiri is committed and Malkovich is having a blast. 

In theaters now

novocaine
Novocaine

Novocaine

His name is Caine. Nathan Caine. And he can’t feel pain, almost as if his entire body is shot full of… some kind of numbing agent. As played by Companion’s Jack Quaid in this action-comedy, he’s a bit of a dweeb. But when his crush (Prey’s Amber Midthunder) is kidnapped, his strange condition becomes an asset.

In theaters now

The Woman in the Yard 

Fresh off the streaming hit Carry-On, new-school B-movie maestro Jaume Collet-Serra returns to straightforward horror for the first time since the 2009 trash classic Orphan. In the aftermath of a tragedy, a mysterious woman shrouded in black takes up residence outside a grieving family’s farmhouse. Seems bad.

In theaters March 28

The Minecraft Movie
Photograph: Warner Bros.

A Minecraft Movie

A kids movie based on a mega-popular video game and starring Jack Black sounds like every parent’s nightmare, but Napoleon Dynamite director Jared Hess at least looks to have done a good job converting the game’s signature blocky design for the screen. If you have a kid of a certain age, you’re seeing it regardless, so resign yourself now

In theaters April 4

Best Movies on Streaming

Best Movies on Netflix

The Electric State 

The Russo brothers’ sci-fi road movie is the most talked-about film on Netflix right now, mostly for being a $320 million disaster. But you want to see what that looks like for yourself, don’t you? 

Watch The Electric State now on Netflix

How to Have Sex
Photograph: MUBI

How to Have Sex

No, it’s not an instructional video you were horrified to discover in your parents’ closet, but it is instructive. A trio of British teens on holiday experience a sexual coming-of-age while navigating the fuzzy definitions of consent, which first-time director Molly Manning Walker handles with the utmost candor and sensitivity. 

Watch How to Have Sex now on Netflix

TRAP
Photograph: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Trap 

Girl-dads unite! Josh Harnett is a serial killer who just wants to take his daughter to see her favorite pop star and walks into a convoluted police sting, while M Night Shyamalan casts his own aspiring pop star daughter as the hero. Can you really root against either of them?

Watch Trap now on Netflix

The Outrun

Ignored during awards season, Saoirse Ronan is nevertheless captivating as an alcoholic drying out at home in Scotland’s Orkney Islands in this adaptation of the bestselling memoir by Amy Liptrot. If nothing else, it’s a stunning travel brochure for the archipelago – just look at all those cute seals!

Watch The Outrun now on Netflix

Best Movies on Hulu

Anora

If you spent the Oscars wondering what the deal is with the movie with all the Russians that won every award, you can now get acquainted. And you should: it’s a rollicking screwball tragicomedy, powered by the third-rail energy of Mikey Madison as a New York sex worker who’s whisked off her feet, then taken for a ride. 

Watch Anora now on Hulu

O’Dessa (March 20)

Stranger Things’ Sadie Sink stars in this post-apocalyptic YA rock opera that looks like a mash-up of The Hunger Games and The Running Man. Sink is a nomadic troubadour with rockabilly hair whose songs may hold the key to defeating a sadistic tyrant, played by Murray Bartlett of The White Lotus.

Watch O’Dessa now on Hulu

Best Movies on Max

Heretic
Photograph: A24

Heretic

Hugh Grant turns heel as a mix of Richard Dawkins and the Jigsaw Killer, tormenting two Mormon missionaries who have the misfortune of knocking on his door. Delightful! 

Watch Heretic now on Max

Sing Sing 

Colman Domingo earned an Oscar nomination, and non-pro Clarence Maclin should have, as inmates finding purpose in a prison arts program. Sound corny? Nope, it’s genuinely inspiring. 

Watch Sing Sing now on Max

Queer

Luca Guadagnino, Hollywood’s busiest filmmaker, adapts William Burroughs, with Daniel Craig as a gay man sowing his hedonistic oats in 1950s Mexico City. It’s the lesser of Guadagnino’s two 2024 movies but it has a radical spirit, and Craig is superb.

Watch Queer on Max starting March 28

Best Movies on Peacock 

NOSFERATU
Photograph: Aidan Monaghan/Universal Pictures

Nosferatu

Of the many iterations of FW Murnau’s 1922 Dracula riff made over the last century, Robert Eggers’ rigorously detailed retelling may be the most visually arresting – that is, if you can get past Count Orlok looking like Soda Popinski from Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out.

Watch Nosferatu now on Peacock

Wicked 

Ozians, now you may sing along without fear of getting shushed by an usher! Presumably everybody invested in the Wicked phenomenon has already seen the movie a dozen times, but for the Elphaba-curious, now’s your chance to see if singing witches are for you before the concluding half drops in November.

Watch Wicked now on Peacock 

Best New Movies on Disney+ 

Mufasa: The Lion King 

Did you spend the ’90s wondering what caused the initial rift between Scar and Mufasa in The Lion King? No? Well, maybe your kids have, and this prequel to the 2019 live-action remake provides the answer.

Watch Mufasa: The Lion King on Disney+ starting March 26 

Moana 2
Photograph: Courtesy Disney

Moana 2 

The plucky daughter of a Polynesian tribal chief sets out to sea yet again to save another island from a terrible curse and reunite with her old pal, the demigod Maui. Yes, it’s pretty much the same movie as before – and was originally planned as a streaming series – but the young’uns will hardly mind.

Watch Moana 2 now on Disney+

Best New Movies on Paramount+

September 5
Photograph: ©2024 Paramount Pictures

September 5

Swiss director Tim Fehlbaum recounts the terrorist attack at the 1972 Munich Olympics entirely through the eyes of the ABC Sports team covering the games. It’s a no-frills newsroom thriller whose tight focus recalls the naturalism of 1970s cinema.

Watch September 5 now on Paramount+

Rumours 

Canadian iconoclast Guy Maddin serves up a bizarre political satire, in which a group of world leaders, including Cate Blanchett as the German chancellor, get lost in the woods during a summit meeting and face all sorts of surreal horrors, not the least being a giant, pulsating brain that’s just sort of… sitting there. 

Watch Rumours now on Paramount+

'Strange Darling / Sevgilim Kaç'
Photograph: Filmartı Film'Strange Darling / Sevgilim Kaç'

Strange Darling

Willa Fitzgerald, of Netflix’s The Fall of the House of Usher, delivers a breakout performance in this twisty, stylish and bloody thriller that’s almost impossible to discuss without spoiling. A strong stomach is required, not just because of the violence but for one of the nastiest breakfasts ever put on camera.

Watch Strange Darling now on Paramount+

Find movies to watch by genre & mood

Best Action Movies

Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003)
Photo: Miramax Films

Kill Bill Vol. 1 and 2 (2003, 2004)

Quentin Tarantino practically sticks a siphon into the part of his movie-nerd brain that’s consumed untold hours of martial arts and revenge flicks and pours it directly onto the screen, with Uma Thurman wielding a sword and wearing the hell out of a yellow-and-black tracksuit. 

Streaming on Hulu and Peacock

Police Story (1985)

Jackie Chan’s daring stunt work reached new levels of insanity in this franchise-starter about a cop framed for murder – see his climatic three-storey freefall at a shopping mall. 

Streaming on Max

Point Break (1991)

Easily the greatest zen-surfing, bankrobbing, parachuteless skydiving, beach-football-playing, double-meatball-sub-eating, pitbull-tossing action-thriller ever made. 

Streaming on Peacock

See Time Out’s full list of the Best Action Movies of All-Time 

Best Comedy Movies

The Nice Guys (2016)

A bumbling private eye (Ryan Gosling) forms an unlikely team with a grumbly tough guy (Russell Crowe) to solve a missing persons case in Lethal Weapon scribe Shane Black’s hilarious pulp send-up.

Streaming on Netflix

Three Amigos! (1986)

Steve Martin, Martin Short and Chevy Chase riff on Seven Samurai as vainglorious silent-film stars who accidentally become the protectors of a small village in Mexico. It’s gleeful silliness of the highest order.

Streaming on Hulu

20 best friendship movies: Withnail and I
Photograph: Hand Made Films

Withnail & I (1987)

A seminal British cult classic following two down-and-out actors (Richard E Grant and Paul McGann) to the English countryside, where things only get worse – and weirder – for the both of them. 

Streaming on Max and Hulu

See Time Out’s full list of the Best Comedy Movies of All-Time

Best Sci-Fi Movies

Filme, Cinema, Aventura, Drama, Dune (2021)
Photograph: Warner Bros.Dune (2021)

Dune (2021)

Denis Villeneuve cracks the code on Frank Herbert’s highly influential yet seemingly unadaptable 1965 novel with this operatic, eye-popping rendering. Each platform has Part Two available to stream as well, so make sure to carve out about five and a half hours. 

Streaming on Max and Hulu

Blade Runner
Photograph: Warner Bros.

Blade Runner (1982)

Ridley Scott’s gritty future-noir is the standard-bearer for sci-fi world-building. Netflix is currently streaming Scott’s ‘Final Cut’, which die-hards consider the definitive version.

Streaming on Netflix

Dark Star (Peacock)

John Carpenter’s debut film is not what you might expect. Something like Dazed and Confused in space, it follows a crew of misfit astronauts whose extended NASA mission is beginning to go awry.   

Streaming on Peacock

See Time Out’s full list of the Best Science Fiction Movies of All-Time

Best Horror Movies

The Invisible Man (2020)

Director Leigh Whannell cleverly updates HG Wells’ classic sci-fi novel as the story of an abusive boyfriend menacing his ex, powerfully played by Elisabeth Moss. 

Stream on Prime

Hereditary
Photo: Courtesy of A24

Hereditary (2018)

Ari Aster came out the gates as a director with this modern horror masterwork, a unrelentingly disturbing slow-burn about a family gradually collapsing beneath the weight of its own buried secrets.

Stream on Netflix 

The Changeling (1980)

Proof you don’t need buckets of blood to make audiences jump, this classic ghost story, about a grieving composer (George C Scott) holed up in a creaky old house, raises goosebumps with the barest of elements.

Stream on Peacock

See Time Out’s full list of the Best Horror Movies of All-Time 

Best Date Night Movies

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
Photograph: 20th Century Fox

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)

Jacques Demy’s candy-colored confection is the musical even the most ardent musical haters can’t resist – which is saying something, since every word in the movie is sung.

Stream on Max and Hulu

Ghost (1990)

Recently murdered Patrick Swayze is stuck haunting the earth as he attempts to avenge his death – and have one last shtup with his wife, Demi Moore.

Stream on Paramount+

It’s Complicated

 It's Complicated
Photograph: Melinda Sue Gordon

It’s Complicated (2009)

Meryl Streep is a divorced bakery owner having a fling with her own ex-husband, played by Alec Baldwin, just as nice-guy architect Steve Martin tries to woo her. Would you be shocked to learn this is a Nancy Meyers joint?

Stream on Prime

See Time Out’s full list of the Best Romantic Movies of All-Time

See Time Out’s full list of the Best Romantic Comedies of All-Time

Best Family Movies

The Wild Robot (2024)

A hyper-intelligent robot ends up lost in the Pacific Northwest forest, where it begins caring for an orphaned gosling and experiencing imposter syndrome over its status as a mother. Kids’ll love it, parents will cry.

Stream on Peacock

The Princess Bride
Courtesy Twentieth Century Fox

(1987)

Few films boast the cross-generational appeal of Rob Reiner’s swashbuckling crowd-pleaser, which is at once a send-up of classic fairy tales and a genuinely exciting adventure on its own.

Stream on Hulu

Ratatouille (2007)

A rat? Cooking fine French food in Paris? Sacre bleu! One of Pixar’s best – and at this point, possibly underrated – standalone gems.

Stream on Disney+

See Time Out’s full list of the Best Family Movies of All-Time

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